Direct mail and internet web-based marketing techniques have been combined by companies sending advertising correspondence including a web address or URL. This enables interested recipients to visit a web page associated with the company or product, gaining more detailed information, and possibly requesting additional material to be mailed. Such web sites may require that a visitor enter personal address information, either to gain entry, or to enable additional mailings to be sent. Such information may also be used to enable a sales person for the company to contact the recipient.
When personal information is entered, the user's visit to the web site may be recorded, including time spent at different pages, to indicate particular product interests. However, requiring the entry of personal information is undesirable for several reasons. Desired cross checking with existing database records may be difficult due to the different formatting, spelling, and other errors that may lead to duplicate records. Also, requiring the entry of personal information is undesirable to some users who wish to preserve privacy. This may lead some potential customers not to visit the web site, or to enter incorrect address information.
Permitting anonymous use of a web site may lead to more visitors, but does not provide the operator with information about who has visited. Such systems record only the number of "hits" or visits to a web page, but not useful contact information, or interests indicated by use of the web pages. Anonymous systems may indicate what are popular areas of a web site, but not the particular interests or needs of a particular, identifiable user to guide future marketing efforts.
Other traditional marketing systems have additional disadvantages. For instance, a reader response card from a magazine might provide useful feedback to a company or publisher which products or advertisers are of sufficient interest to merit sending detailed product information. However, such procedures involve appreciable delay between mailing of the card, and receipt of the requested information, particularly if the information is bundled for mailing only at intervals.
The embodiment disclosed herein overcomes these disadvantages by providing a method of operating a database of records. The method includes providing an internet web site containing selected information, and providing a computer containing the database. Each record of the database is associated with each of a number of contacts. An identifying code is generated for each contact, and is transmitted to each contact. When a contact attempts to access the website, the contact is asked to input the code. In response to entry of the code, access is provided to a selected portion of the selected information.